1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an improvement for paint spray booths and, more particularly, is concerned with a product for minimizing the controlled air space inside paint spray booths.
Paint spray booths are usually found in production lines for products such as automobiles. Parts of the automobile which must be painted are conveyed into the enclosed booth and the desired paint is applied by spraying the paint on to the parts either manually or through the use of robotics.
Between 25 and 60 percent of the paint never reaches the part being painted but appears as overspray in the air. The overspray must be removed from the booth for a variety of reasons. It cannot be allowed to fall back on the painted body or the interior of the booth. Removal of the overspray is best met if the booth is provided with a vertical, laminar air flow with sufficient air velocity. The air enters the booth through a perforated ceiling, usually made of a wire mesh, and flows down through a perforated floor, usually steel grating, thereby creating a constant draft. In many conventional systems, downward draft carries the overspray through the floor where it mixes with water to be disposed of as sludge.
Since paint spray booths can be hundreds of feet long with many work stations along the way, it is desirable to be able to apply different colors of paint to the parts as they pass through the booth. Cross contamination of colors should be avoided by preventing the paint at each work station from drifting through the overspray to the next work station.
Temperature and humidity conditions in the booth must also be monitored very closely. Certain paints, for instance, require very accurate control of these two variables.
Another concern of paint spray booths are emissions into the atmosphere. Federal Law regulates these emissions. In order to reduce the concentration of paint particles in the air exhausted to the environment, the air leaving through the floor of the paint spray booth must be cleaned.
Removing overspray, controlling air temperature and humidity, and cleaning paint particles from the exhaust air requires an enormous amount of energy. These energy needs can be very expensive. Reducing the energy required for each of the aforementioned concerns and lowering capital investment for related equipment can be accomplished by minimizing the total air volume inside the paint spray booth work stations.